Can Vegans Eat Chocolate?

A lot of folks are surprised to learn that vegans can even eat chocolate. While a lot of commercial chocolate — read: Hershey’s — is not vegan, good quality dark chocolate usually is.

Chocolate comes from the cocoa plant, and your basic dark chocolate only has three ingredients:

cocoa powder – solids from the cocoa plant

cocoa butter – fat from the cocoa plant

sugar

Commercial brands add milk and butterfat to their chocolate to make up for the fact that their product contains so little (or no!) actual chocolate. Cocoa butter is more expensive than butterfat or milk fat, so they use these cheap, animal-based fillers instead of the real deal.

Making Vegan Hot Chocolate

When it comes to hot cocoa, though, that whole argument is kind of moot. You’re just using the cocoa powder with no added ingredients.

To make a hot cocoa recipe vegan, all you need to do is substitute non-dairy milk for the cow’s milk, and you’re good to go. The trick is mimicking the creaminess of dairy-based cocoa, because usually those recipes use heavy cream and whole milk.

For really decadent, rich, creamy hot cocoa, you need some extra fat, and that’s where I have a favorite trick: light coconut milk!

Start by mixing the cocoa powder with just enough of the coconut milk to form a thick paste. This will help the powder dissolve.

Once you have that paste, add the rest of the ingredients, whisk, and heat. Then it’s time to sip!

About the Coconut Milk

I first made this recipe with all full fat coconut milk, but the coconut flavor was too strong for my taste. This updated vegan hot cocoa recipe uses light coconut milk plus soy or oat milk for a better balance of fat and flavor.

There is still a mild coconut taste, so if coconut isn’t your thing, I’d suggest using all soy or oat milk. The cocoa won’t be as rich, but it won’t taste of coconut. You can also use 1 3/4 cups of vegan creamer in place of the coconut milk, if that’s your speed.

Spiking Your Cocoa

This hot cocoa is delicious on its own, but for extra warm-you-up power, you can spike it with the booze of your choice. It’s delightful with a splash of mint rum, but you can also use:

plain rum

whiskey

coffee liqueur

vanilla vodka

Or choose your own adventure, if there’s a booze-and-chocolate combo that I haven’t listed above. And tell me about it, so I can try it, too!

Vegan Hot Chocolate

This super easy vegan hot chocolate recipe is rich and creamy with hints of cinnamon and vanilla. Spike it with your favorite booze or drink it straight up.

1ouncemint rum – or light or spiced rum, whiskey, or white whiskey (optional – This amount is per mug, not for the whole batch. Leaving the booze on the side means you can decide whether to spike, mug-by-mug.)

Instructions

In a sauce pot, whisk the cocoa powder and 1/4 cup of the coconut milk together until it forms a paste

Add the rest of the ingredients (including the remaining coconut milk), except the booze.

Heat on medium-low, whisking constantly, until the cocoa powder mixture is totally dissolved and the cocoa is heated through.

Serve immediately. If you're not planning to serve all of the cocoa right away, turn off the heat, and just turn the stove on to heat it back up when you're ready to ladle out a mug or two.

If you want to spike it: Add whichever booze you're using into the bottom of a mug, then top off with cocoa.

Notes

Nutritional information is for unspiked hot cocoa, since the calories in different alcohols can vary.

Have you ever tried homemade cashew milk? I buy organic cashews, soak, and blend. It can be thick, like cream, or thinner like milk depending on the ratio of nuts to water. In a Vitamix, I don’t even strain it. It is my milk of choice, and I intend to try it with this cocoa recipe! The perfect creamy mouthfeel and very mild taste are the best!

I make hot chocolate with almond milk, but I’ve never tried it with coconut milk â€” that must be so delicious! I like my chocolate to be as dark as possible. I never liked chocolate until I discovered bittersweet.

I kind of want to experiment with adding a little cayenne, too, to make a full-on Mexican hot chocolate! Since this batch was for company, I stayed on the safe side, but if it goes well, I’ll share that recipe, too!

Like you said, I’ve found that with good quality dark chocolate, I’m satisfied with just a square or two because the flavor is so bold. Before I went vegan, I thought dark chocolate was bitter, but now I love the deep richness of taste.